Category Archives: Cigarettes

Mrs Kartoshka is coming! So I give up cigarettes for a month-starting today. It’s a part of our relationship. If we travel I don’t want to spend hours on a train or an aeroplane itching for a smoke, so I give up about a fortnight before, convinced that by the time she’s here the craving will be ‘out of my system’.

In truth I’m already looking forward to the nauseating rush of smoking my next cigarette on the 16th May.

The second in our series was an actual real life cowboy, Mr Clarence Hailey Long, Jr (1910-1978). C.H. Long tasted fame in 1949, when LIFE magazine published a series of Leonard McCombe photographs on ranching in the American West.The series inspired the folks at Philip Morris & Co., who were looking for a new image for their Marlboro cigarettes, originally intrioduced in 1924 as a womens’ brand. The masculine image of the ruggedly handsome cowboy was seen as being the ideal way to appeal to male smokers.In 1955 Mr. Long was offered a $20,000 annual contract to advertise beer. He gained the admiration of his friends in the Baptist Church by declining the deal.It is worth noting that Mr Long, like most cowboys, smoked hand rolled cigarettes.

Joao loves the occasional cigarette.Old cigarette ads look great now, viewed with a sort of post modern irony. It’s also great watching old movies and TV programmes with people lighting up at the drop of a hat- even on aeroplanes. I can’t imagine watching old movies such as Bob Le Flambeur without a pack of cigarettes close at hand.I have thought about featuring cigarette adverts on Kartoshka 167…